Last Week
Tuesday – We went to a wine tasting at a place called Sei Divino. Alessio pointed out the play on words – the name means You Are Divine, but it’s also Sei Di Vino… You come from wine, or you are of wine. Kinda cool .. Anyway, it was a small group that went, and we sat at a table with most of the Loyola girls and a friend from my Italian class. We had little pieces of cheese, olives, and mortadella, and a popular Florentine dish called Poppa del Pomodoro. It’s kind like a fancy stuffing… it’s basically soggy bread cooked with tomatoes, olives, spices, and of course olive oil. It had a weird texture – you know how I hate that – but it was actually kind of good. We tried 4 wines that night, 2 Tuscan reds, 1 Sicilian red, and a Tuscan white. I loved the white, and the first of the Tuscan reds was definitely my favorite. He explained the different grapes to us and the different aging processes… it was all very interesting. We got a coupon for the next time we go back .. and its easy to arrange private group tastings, so I hope we can do it again. We had to miss dinner with our families since we were so far from our houses, so we decided to stay for aperitivo since the food looked so good when we walked in. Have I explained aperitivo yet? Well if you don’t know what it is, it takes place every night at most bars and restaurants here. It’s like an extra generous happy hour - you go in to the bar anytime between 6-1030, depending on the place, and you pay for one drink (usually around 6-8 euro), wine, beer, soda, or anything you want. With that price you get full access to their buffet of food. In most cases it’s picky stuff, but some restaurants offer enough that it is just the same as eating regular courses at home. It’s seriously the most wonderful idea ever. The food is so good and it ends up being cheaper than most weekend lunches. It was sushi night at Sei Divino, so when I ordered another glass of the white wine I liked so much, I got a full plate of sushi AND access to the buffet. The sushi was the real kind .. lots of raw stuff.. but I really liked it! I was so proud of myself for trying it. The buffet was awesome too .. lots of Italian appetizer-type dishes. My favorite was this pulled chicken in spicy olive oil dressing thing. I hadn’t realized, but it was the first time we had chicken on the trip! I missed it so much :)After aperitivo we went to a pub called JJs. We like it there because before 10PM they let you pay with American dollars, and their drinks are delicious! Our favorite is the Snake Bite, which is ½ Lager ½ Cider & a splash of Raspberry Syrup. After that, we went to BeBop, the underground music club that has a Beatles cover band every Tuesday night. That wasn’t exactly successful because it was so crowded that we couldn’t even make it down the stairs. I’m hoping to try again tonight … we’ll see! Friday – Our first school trip! We went to Assisi for the day to see a whooole bunch of churches. We spent most of the day in the church of San Francesco (St. Francis of Assisi), hearing stories about the art and visiting the chapels and his tomb. After the tour we had an amazing lunch: fresh local pasta in pesto sauce (what else?!) and a crisp light pizza with ricotta and spinach. Colleen and I split both.. we’ve been doing that a lot lately so we can get a taste of everything! After that we walked around the town, saw more churches (most notably Santa Chiara’s – St. Clare) and took a lot of pictures. Assisi is one of the most beautiful towns ever…. the weather wasn’t even that nice and the views and scenery were still spectacular. To end the day we did some window shopping and I bought a small bottle of olive oil – they say its some of the best in Umbria (the region we were in) because it’s a little bit spicy. We’ll see! Saturday – More churches! We went to Ravenna to see the incredible mosaics from some of the first Christian churches. The town was weird because it is REEEALLY old, but it has since been modernized (not like Assisi, a city which isn’t as old but hasn’t changed much since the days of Francis and Clare..) and it’s kind of run down. In the middle of this normal city are churches and sites (like Dante’s tomb) that are a jillion years old! (well, they’re from about 500 AD I think..) so after we saw all of the beautiful and intricate decorations, there wasn’t much else to do. Colleen and I did what we do best and got some gelato (the best we’ve had so far) and did some shopping. I bought a few things from Zara and went home happy. Up until now I’ve been busy with school .. there wasn’t much else going on. Tomorrow I’m attending a lecture on the mafia, and Thursday I leave for the French Riviera!!! We’re going to Nice for Carnival (Mardi Gras) and I could not be more excited. I probably won’t write before then .. but you’ll hear all about it after, I promise! I’ll post my pictures before I leave, because I know I’ll want an empty memory card! Hope all is well on the home front … miss you all! Love, love, love, Kristen
